Julius Malema: 'I am not a dictator, I'm a hard worker'
EFF leader Julius Malema has lashed out those who call him a dictator, saying that he is just a hard worker.
Malema was briefing the media on Sunday, for the first time since he was re-elected unopposed as the party's president at the EFF national congress on Saturday night.
He told journalists that it was only those he defeated politically who labelled him a dictator.
An emotional Malema went down memory lane, explaining how this was not his first election without an opponent.
He boasted about how he did it when he was barely 20 and was elected the president of the Congress of SA Students (Cosas).
Moreover, Malema said it was he who became the ANC Youth League provincial secretary against the wishes of Fikile Mbalula, Malusi Gigaba and Zizi Kodwa, who opposed him at the time only to accept him later after he won the contest.
“I was elected the president of Cosas young and I was unopposed. I went to the conference of the ANCYL in Limpopo and they contested me and I won. Subsequent to that, no-one ever contested me,” said Malema.
I come from nothing, born from a domestic worker ... and I worked my way up
“When I got elected as the secretary of the ANCYL in Limpopo, Mbalula, Gigaba and Zizi Kodwa did not want me — but out of my work ethic, they said this boy, even if you do not like him, you cannot fault him on work for the organisation.
“My simple thing of being elected and re-elected unopposed every time is very simple: I work very hard. I do not take anything for granted, I pay attention to the smallest detail,” Malema went on.
“I am not a dictator, I am a hard worker. I come from nothing, born from a domestic worker who suffered from epilepsy and I worked my way up here single-handedly, knowing where I come from. So I do not care who thinks what about me.”